on, only he knew it; the fire lurked very deep in his overshaded
soul.

Laura made, socially speaking, a good marriage. She married the Marquis
of Vaccarone, a babbling Neapolitan, insubstantial and light. In a short
while, seeing that they were not congenial, she arranged for an amicable
separation and the two lived independent.

III. CAESAR MONCADA

AT THE ESCOLAPIANS

Caesar studied in Madrid in an Escolapian college in the Calle de
Hortaleza, where he was an intern all the time he was taking his
bachelor's degree.

His mother had gone to live in Valencia, after marrying Laura off,
and Caesar passed his vacations with her at a country-place in a
neighbouring village.

Several times a year Caesar received letters and photographs from his
sister, and one winter Laura came to Valencia. She retained a great
fondness for Caesar; he was fond of her too, although he did not show
it, because his character was little inclined to affectionate expansion.

At college Caesar showed himself to be a somewhat strange and absurd
youth. As he was slight and of a sickly appearance, the teachers treated
him with a certain consideration.

One day a teacher noticed that Caesar creaked when he moved, as if his
clothes were starched.

"What are you wearing?" he asked him.

"Nothing."

"Nothing, indeed! Unbutton your jacket."

Caesar turned very pale and did not unbutton it; but the master, seizing
him by a lapel, unbuttoned his jacket and his waistcoat, and found that
the student was covered with papers.

"What are these papers? For what purpose are you keeping them here?"

"He does it," one of his fellow students replied, laughing, "because
he is afraid of catching cold and becoming consumptive." They all made
comments on the boy's eccentricity, and a few days later, to show that
he was not a coward, he tried to go out on the balcony on a cold winter
night, with his chest bare.

Among his fellow-students Caesar had an intimate friend, Ignacio
Alzugaray, to whom he confided and explained his prejudices and doubts.
Alzugaray was not a boarder, but a day-scholar.

Ignacio brought anti-clerical periodicals to school, which Caesar read
with enthusiasm. His sojourn in a religious college was producing a
frantic hatred for priests in young Moncada.

Caesar was remarkable for the rapidity of his decisions and the lack of
vacillation in his opinions. He felt no timidity about either affirming
or denying.

His convic